I hear the eyes go first. There's a lot of dense liquid in there and no nerves to monitor the temperature.

Which, incidentally, is why nobody should ever defeat the door switch on a microwave oven - by the time your skin heats up enough to warn you that something is going on, you may already be legally blind

I hear the eyes go first. There's a lot of dense liquid in there and no nerves to monitor the temperature.

Which, incidentally, is why nobody should ever defeat the door switch on a microwave oven - by the time your skin heats up enough to warn you that something is going on, you may already be legally blind

I use to work on firmware for 2way radio repeaters (VHF and UHF). We had people in the area that could tell when someone was running one without an Attenuator because they would get headaches. Not even the "big" 100W repeaters, the small 40W repeaters would do the trick. Fortunately the frequency wasn't quite so high on those, with these 2.4/5.0Ghz routers that would be a serious issue.

ludi wrote: ...nobody should ever defeat the door switch on a microwave oven - by the time your skin heats up enough to warn you that something is going on, you may already be legally blind...

I often wonder if I should even be in the same room when my microwave is turned on. It is positioned above the stove, just above "eye level". Whenever it's on, I try not to even look into it...and usually I prefer to be in the other room with at least one wall between the device and my eyes/brain. I'm probably too paranoid.

just brew it! wrote:...and then there's the story about how the microwave oven was "discovered" back in 1945...

The story of Marie Curie also fascinates me. She died from long term exposure to radiation from her studies throughout the years. She did a lot of her work in a shed with no safety measures (she was the groundbreaker, so the risks were as yet unknown). She used to carry test tubes of isotopes in her pockets, and she even commented that they glowed in her desk drawer!

Even now her notes and papers are so radioactive that they are kept in lead containers and people who wish to read them must wear special protective clothing!

I have a drop ceiling in the basement, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to access it. It seems to be clipped in both directions such that I can't just push them up and off to the side like normal commercial drop ceilings. What am I missing here?

I have a drop ceiling in the basement, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to access it. It seems to be clipped in both directions such that I can't just push them up and off to the side like normal commercial drop ceilings. What am I missing here?

Starfalcon wrote:Well at least I don't have problems with hoarding broken and obsolete stuff...........

Hey, how old does stuff need to be before you're interested in it? I don't have any more Pentium Pro or K6 systems for you, but I may be looking to unload some non-broken and only moderately obsolete stuff in the near future, as a side effect of the activities described in this thread.

Gleek already took one of my other old Socket 754 systems at the BBQ... you missed out!

Sadly 754 systems are pretty old now...I remember when those were cutting edge lol. I never say no to any hardware, and I do have a suprising amount of socket A systems. Just hit me up and let me know what your looking to get rid of.

bhtooefr wrote:Huh, got a beer brewing starter kit (and a kit to do a batch of wheat beer, too) for Christmas.

This'll be interesting.

...and *how* interesting it gets depends on how much you get into the hobby. Some people just do the kit thing, and make good beer that way. A lot of people who stick with it for more than a few batches eventually start formulating their own recipes or even doing grain mashes instead of using pre-packaged kits. The more obsessive do a deep dive into the chemistry and microbiology aspect, or even end up going pro (most of the current wave of craft breweries and brewpubs was started by homebrewers).

The bottom line for n00b brewers: Pay strict attention to sanitation of anything that touches the wort or beer post-boil, and it's pretty much impossible to end up with something that isn't drinkable. Even if you do manage to botch the sanitation and end up with bacterial or wild yeast contamination, the chemistry of beer is such that pathogenic bacteria can't survive in it, so it's not going to give you botulism, salmonella, e coli or anything like that. (A big part of learning how to be a beer judge is learning how to spot the characteristic off aromas and flavors caused by various unwanted microorganisms... if pathogenic bacteria could live in beer there'd be an awful lot of dead homebrew competition judges!)

OK, it's supposed to snow here in New England. Depending on where you are it's 6" to 18". In other words, a perfectly normal New England snowstorm. Now we have The Weather Channel trying to name snowstorms so Jim Cantore can opine wisely in the face of a whole foot of snow.

Get over it people. You live in the Snow Belt. Random 12" dumps are nothing but a wee bother on the way to work. You're not allowed to call it epic until it hits 24" in an overnight. Oh, and another point. "All-season" tires do not work in moderate or greater snow. Repeat with me: Hakkapeliitta. There's a reason that Nokian Tyres US HQ is about a mile down the road from my house.

bhtoofer; I'd be happy if Texas would just let us BUY snow tires! Studs are illegal

I know they're harder on the roads, but it isn't like the whole state lives in Houston or Brownsville. We get snow on a semi-regular basis up here in Amarillo (just got a few inches on Christmas actually--was rather nice).

Ugly people have sex all the time. We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion humans if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

There's also the problem of being able to afford snow tires. I looked into it for my car; turns out a new set of wheels and tires would run $1200 or so. That's just too steep for me at this point in my life.

in Colorado, we pretty much all used studded snow tires, at least in the mountains. But you could have snow on some roads for months straight too--going from our house to Nederlands for instance...or even Kittridge which wasn't that remote or high elevation.

Ugly people have sex all the time. We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion humans if you had to be beautiful to get laid.

That's one annoying thing about modern cars, that wheels are huge, and therefore tires are so damn expensive.

A set of snows for my car (which, lower end modern models of the same car, you could still get 15" steel wheels, and tire specs are the same), when I bought them, was about $320, and I paid $300 for my summer wheels (it would've been about $100 for a set of 5x100 VW steelies used, or less, though, if I already had the alloys).

Never run studs, myself. The Hankook i-Pikes for my Camry do support studs but the cold weather road holding is improved enough that I can't see value in the extra cost, extra tire noise, or extra road damage. Although Colorado does permit year-round use of studded tires.

I also went the steel rims route for the winter set. No need to take the extra mounting and balancing damage twice a year, plus the inevitable curb slide means the wheel bends but is still low-speed drivable, whereas an alloy in cold weather is at a higher risk of cracking itself or a couple lug bolts.

I made the decision to leave work early yesterday in the midst of a snowstorm/hailstorm/freezing rain storm. It was painful brushing my car off and Iw as a bit concerned about the well-broken-in all-seasons I have on my FWD vehicle. Even untreated, it performed admirably reinforcing my belief that studs are over-rated. We can put ours on in Nov and carry them until March or May IIRC. They finally plowed my street about 25 minutes ago which is just a silly response time. We all knew it was coming and they were caught with pants down anyhow. MY normal 25-35 commute took 1 hour 45 minutes approx. Blech.

I have a drop ceiling in the basement, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to access it. It seems to be clipped in both directions such that I can't just push them up and off to the side like normal commercial drop ceilings. What am I missing here?

2' X 4', 2' X 2', or the 12" square perforated acoustical tile?

2'x2'Turns out the previous owner, who I want to call "OP" had no idea what he was doing on any home improvement project. Instead of using drop ceiling mounts to hold the drop ceiling to the joists, he used them all over which means you need to pry and bend to get any ceiling tile out. What was the point of a drop ceiling again?

Every time I need to look closely at any non-original work on this house I end up facepalming. Another example: there is an exhaust fan in my house with no duct work. I promptly disconnected it should someone think they're doing anything besides putting moisture/dust into the ceiling space.

SpotTheCat wrote:Every time I need to look closely at any non-original work on this house I end up facepalming. Another example: there is an exhaust fan in my house with no duct work. I promptly disconnected it should someone think they're doing anything besides putting moisture/dust into the ceiling space.

Don't get me started.

The duct for our dryer was venting inside the ceiling of the finished basement. Previous owner hadn't properly fastened the sections of duct together before putting in the ceiling, so it eventually came apart in multiple places. Fixing it required figuring out where the breaks were, cutting holes in the ceiling (drywall, not tiles), repairing the ductwork, then repairing the ceiling.

Also turns out that all of the toilet tanks were incorrectly installed. Wrong washers used on the tank bolts, with liberal amounts of caulk used to stop the inevitable leaks. One set was so rusty from water seeping out of the tank that I had to drill the bolts out.

SpotTheCat wrote:Turns out the previous owner, who I want to call "OP" had no idea what he was doing on any home improvement project. Instead of using drop ceiling mounts to hold the drop ceiling to the joists, he used them all over which means you need to pry and bend to get any ceiling tile out. What was the point of a drop ceiling again?

Probably was easier/cheaper for OP to install the ceiling tiles than to put in drywall/plaster and then paint.

just brew it! wrote:There's a bunch of wonky electrical and tile work too...

Yeah. In the kitchen redo of about 10 years ago we found that the wire running to the socket where the toaster sat (and toasters draw some serious ampage) was a splice between BX (the metal-sheathed stuff) and romex done with masking tape and stuffed between the joist and the 2nd floor subfloor. Both ceiling light j-boxes in the kitchen/dining area had multiple (and not the same) circuits running through them. Nothing like shutting off a breaker and finding the box still live. Good thing that 120 only stings.